The Teardrop Seraph and the Boy with Pebble Eyes
by TheDarkFlygon
Summary: [Fairytale AU, Kiku/Takeru] Legend says that a young girl with the power to create rivers is searching for her long-lost lover, a boy with hair white as snow with red streaks like fire and grey eyes like gentle pebbles. The legend also says they met again at a fountain.


There is a legend that goes as such.

Once upon a time, there was a young mage dressed in a blue hood and white dress with the power to manipulate water. Kind-hearted and patient, she took it upon herself to bring water to those who needed it the most across the lands. Everywhere she went, she was thanked by the townspeople and farmers alike, saving their crops and their children thanks to the wells she created on her path to an objective no one know the true nature of. It was assumed she was trying to reach someone through making herself heard and known to the entire country, as a way to call for them.

This legend was born from a question she would always ask the people she helped. She described the very same young man: white hair like snow with red streaks like blazing fire and eyes like gentle grey pebbles. Her story never changed: it was always the very same young man she was searching for far and wild, and yet nobody had heard of him. No one. Some rumours said rivers would be born from the tears she shed every time she left a town after saving it, giving her the nickname of the Teardrop Seraph. If every river was a goddess taking form as generous flowing water, then she was their mother, their guardian.

The girl continued her journey, seeking whom everyone assumed to be her loved one, helping people along the way and purifying the polluted waters she came across. The more she cleaned, the more people's thankfulness made her insensible to the dirt she was touching with her bare hands. Now a famous figure, people searched for her to heal their ill children, the water she purified having the reputation to heal any disease or deformity. She always complied, as long as she could ask if they had seen the boy with the pebble eyes and white hair.

She started to get some leads. Rumours had also spread about the boy, some true but most wrong. The girl was always able to distinguish between the lies and the truth by following her instincts and knowledge kept secret, yet always nodded in some way as a thank you for responding to her request. She found shelter in forests and caves, never stopping in the towns in fear of being abused by humans who knew about her powers. She had heard of terrible stories of abused mages like her before: her trust was never full.

One day, the girl entered a forest half-burnt, half-alive. She wandered amidst the leaves and the ash, trying to see if someone needed her services to extinguish the wildfire ravaging the forest, but found nobody except little animals finding shelter in the still green part of the forest. To help them, she created with her powers a little source in the middle of the blacked trees. White flowers doted the trees, almost like a night sky whose background were leaves. Walking down a path between the two parts, she decided to get inside the burnt parts: it seemed to be the part needing her help.

She eventually came across a shack protected by a fearsome crimson dragon with red streaks over its scaled body. It stared inside her soul with its bright, void yellow eyes. Its wings were covering the shock as if it was protecting it, or rather, protecting whomever was inside. Its mighty roar scared the girl away at first: her hoodie was blown away by the soundwaves, revealing her own yellow eyes and blue hair tied in a braid.

The girl ran through the burnt woods as to find shelter, to escape from the dragon's claws and fire-breath, feet rising clouds of ash with each of her rushed steps inside of it. With nowhere to go, she hid behind a tree, hoping not to get caught, breathing stuck inside her throat. A few excruciating moments passed without anything happening, giving her a sense that she could approach the dragon. If it ever intended on attacking her, then it would have rushed to her and burnt everything in its stead again. Instead, she found herself curious: why did it not go after her? Was it because she never entered the shed or tried to? She had to test her hypothesis…

The girl slowly walked back towards the shed, noticing the dragon had not moved at all since she had run away from it. It really seemed to be protecting the shed rather than go after anyone to eat. Had the legends about dragons lied? Perhaps. It did not seem to be after her particularly, making her believe she would be fine asking it some questions. Maybe it could answer her?

She arrived in front of the dragon again, hands tied together in front of her, ready to face another of its fearsome roars. It instead simply stared at her, both of them not saying anything for a few crushing moments of anxiety. She had forgotten to put her hood back on, leaving her with her brain on her shoulder and their yellow eyes crossing ways. It seemed to almost recognize her as its stare softened on the second time.

"Oh dragon, please tell me," she asked, "would you mind answering a question for a lost girl like me?"

"Lost girl, you can ask me one question, and only one question," it responded in a deep, masculine and rasping voice, echoing through the woods.

"Have you seen a boy with white hair like snow with red streaks like fire and grey eyes like gentle pebbles?"

The dragon did not reply at first, seemingly thinking out its answer.

"There is one such boy inside this shed," it eventually responded, "but I cannot grant you access to it, lost girl."

All of a sudden, the dragon's attention was diverted away from her and to the shed itself by another masculine voice, this time far softer. Hands on her chest, hoping the boy in the shed was her lost beloved, she waited in anticipation for the situation to evolve any further. She needed to know if it was the one she was searching for, the one she had spent months seeking after his sudden disappearance, refusing to believe him dead. He was alive, somewhere, she knew it from the bottom of her heart.

"Wait, Flame," the voice said as someone exited the house, a boy around her age, "I know her…!"

"Then," the girl asked back in a moment of disbelief, "what is my name?"

The boy slowly walked up to her with his face flushed and hesitant steps. His body looked like it was about to break down, drops of sweat falling to the floor as the girl felt tears come to her eyes. Heart filled with hope and yet ready to get disappointed once again, she said nothing and clutched her chest.

"Your name is Kiku, of course…" he told her as he collapsed to the ground.

The girl ran up to him, tears running down her face, as she caught him in his fall. Lying down on the floor, his head on her lap, she recognized him. White hair like snow with red streaks like fire, grey eyes like gentle pebbles, and this way to pronounce her name like only he could have. The tears would not stop coming as it all crashed down on her: she had found him again, but he was dying.

"I… I'm sorry, I was too late," she cried as he smiled at her, a feeble hand on her cheek drying the trails on her face.

"It's never been too late with you…"

His soft laugh could not lighten the burden of her emotions falling on her shoulders as she clutched the wrist near her cheek.

"I've heard of your miracles… I'm so proud of you, Kiku…"

The girl's voice had been stolen, so she could not reply. Hearing her own name for the first time in months made her too emotional to speak. Instead, remembering the rumours about her, all she could do was try what they had said about her. Did she have actual healing abilities? Maybe. She could only try and see in a last attempt to fix what was wrong.

His eyes were already closing on themselves as they watched together the tears on the ground create a fountain right around them, with only a narrow path to exit the water making a circle surrounding the two long-lost lovers, droplets falling from a statue floating above the ground and linked to it with the slenderest pillars. Desperate, the girl filled a tiny glass bottle she had on her with the water born from her own tears and put it next to his lips. A single chug was heard.

The Teardrop Seraph, as she was called, closed her eyes and waited for the inevitable to happen. Drying her face with her sleeve, she heard a cough before getting clutched against someone else's chest, hands wrapping around her. The heat coming from the boy's body had subdued to a familiar feeling she had missed so much.

"Ta…" Her voice finally came back, tears falling down again from another emotion altogether. "Takeru… I…"

"I missed you too," was all he replied before they profited from each other's presence.

Ever since, then, it has been said that the water from the Fountain of the Teardrop Seraph can heal illnesses. Do you believe this tale? I'm not sure, personally…


End file.
